Combining satellite navigation with traffic avoidance algorithms, ridesharing and now food ordering, Waze is looking to change the way people travel. To use the new Order Ahead feature, users pick specific items from the Dunkin’ Donuts menu within the Waze application, which then seeks out the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts and places an order there which can be picked up shortly afterward.
The plan, according to Waze parent company Google, is to add more companies and restaurants in the future, so that there will be a wide variety of food available — not just donuts and coffee.
The companies most likely to come on board with this scheme in the near future are McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Starbucks because, as The Verge points out, all of them already have app-based ordering systems. It probably wouldn’t take much to integrate them with Waze.
For full functionality though, we’d like to see these applications built into Waze itself, rather than sitting alongside it. Otherwise you could be required to install a new app every time you want to try a new place, and that could end up requiring a lot of companion apps.
Waze’s Order Ahead function is something that users are cautioned to do before they leave on a journey — Google doesn’t want lawsuits from people being injured while using the app during a drive. However, another Verge suggestion is that ordering ahead could easily become a common task to perform when a car is driving itself.
As autonomous vehicles become more commonplace, we’ll likely see more people ordering food, doing work, or watching movies as they “drive.”
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